a. Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a multimedia synchronization system and method. More particularly, the present disclosure relates to a multimedia synchronization system and method used in a wireless local area network.
b. Description of the Related Art
Typically, when an audio player plays streaming audio content, the audio player may control a sample time of each audio sample according to a sample rate specified in the audio content, such that the audio content is played smoothly. However, in order to allow two or more audio players to simultaneously play the same piece of audio content, these audio players are required to play the same audio sample at the same time.
In a conventional method, the audio player may use an interface protocol (such as network time protocol/simple network time protocol, NTP/SNTP) to synchronize the system time of each audio player. Therefore, multiple audio players may play the audio content smoothly according to the timing information and sample rate recorded in the audio content and the synchronized system time.
However, in the method mentioned above, one of the audio players is required to serve as a host server for providing coordinated universal time (UTC) and for receiving time synchronization requests conforming to a network time protocol/simple network time protocol from other audio players. Normally, the clock synchronization precision of the network time protocol/simple network time protocol is in the range of 50 milliseconds for a wide-area network and about 1 millisecond for a local-area network. Therefore, in case the local-area network is not provided with a UTC host server, the system time is instead corrected by the network time protocol/simple network time protocol of a wide-area network. However, the clock synchronization precision of the wide-area network is comparatively low (about 50 milliseconds) such that synchronization errors among different audio players might occur more often. Though the local-area network may be provided with a UTC host server to reduce synchronization errors and to improve synchronization precision, this may increase fabrication costs.
Therefore, it is desirable to make multiple audio players simultaneously play the same piece of audio content in a wireless local area network with reduced fabrication costs and less time synchronization errors.